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Bring your live programming up to speed with ETC’s Eos v2.4 software

A lighting console is an extension of the programmer’s brain, requiring quick, intuitive access to pre-recorded content and live-modification tools. ETC’s Eos® family consoles have always provided powerful, customisable lighting control for any environment. With the recent v2.4 software release, that control becomes even more dynamic, with a fader-configuration overhaul and new display options.

Progress on display

Eos Motorized Wings

Upgrades to the software’s displays help programmers keep tabs on what’s going on in the console – and what’s going on in the console’s tabs. Tabs now carry contextual labels. New configuration options also allow users to hide, show and re-order columns in the Playback Status Display (cue list) and more easily include informative notes on each cue.

The new software also introduces Scene Breaks, which can be added to cue lists to organise, navigate, and modify cues within specific segments of a production. Starting rehearsal from the top of Act II, Scene 3? No need to hunt for the cue number; Scene Break Direct Selects and Go to Cue Scene can take you there.

Dynamic, nuanced control

Busking is all about how you set up your face panel. Eos v2.4 opens up new options for fader configuration, allowing programmers to customise their live-playback workspace. More content types can now be assigned to faders, and users have the option to designate the functions of each fader and its associated buttons.

The software also allows targets to occupy more than one fader slot, meaning that programmers can take manual control of individual properties of an effect by assigning controls to separate faders. Want to play with an effect on the fly? Assign intensity to one fader and effect rate to another, and start busking away.

Navigating the world of playback ownership – which decides which of several competing controls gets to determine the current output – can be involved. When working live, a mistake can mean reverting to an unwanted strobe cue or plunging the stage into a blackout. Eos v2.4 gives programmers the option to make their own rules by assigning priorities and background priorities to content, increasing in dominance from one to 10. Now users have more control over how they build their live looks, and they can designate high-priority background states that take over when those layers are removed – ensuring a safe and predictable exit from any look.

Eos 2.4 also enables the use of the Eos Motorized Fader Wings, up to three of which can be added to Eos Ti®, Gio®, Ion® or ETCnomad controllers and Eos family RVIs or RPUs to create expanded playback surfaces. Not only do programmers have more options for fader configuration – now they have the option of more faders, too. With more flexibility built into the powerful Eos platform, live programming has a bright, dynamic future.